Secrets
by Ari Winters
Summary: A childhood dream is what it was. Living in a world, that was nothing more than a tv show. Nothing more than a cartoon, that had great art. Kenzi thought it was impossible to end up there, and somehow she did. It was nothing like what she might have ever imagined, and suddenly... it no longer seemed as fun as when she was a child watching the episodes...
1. Change

**A/N: Hey guys, so this is my first ATLA fanfic, so I'm pretty excited about this. Yes there are a few fanfics based on the same basic idea, but I hope that you guys enjoy this and that I'll make this quite different. I'll also be trying to explore more of the culture, and the way of life of the different groups of people, so I hope you all enjoy this. **

**Disclaimer: So much would be so different if I owned ATLA, so... I don't own anything?**

* * *

A variety of different things make up life. All of them unfortunately inevitable, even when one tries their hardest to avoid them. Change. Secrets. Lies. Questions. Mistakes. All of them have a way of finding a person, and all play a role in creating who a person is. Their identity. What they understand of the world around them.

Change is the most obvious, and completely unavoidable. The change of weather from day to day. The world as seasons come and go, making their presence obvious throughout the entire environment. The change in relationships as one grows older, between family, friends and partners.

Change is something ever present, something that most people are used to, even if it can be scary at the beginning.

But for me, change didn't occur in a way that I could have ever predicted. And following change, there also came secrets, lies, mistakes and questions that all spiralled out of control in a way I never was able to predict.

Even now, even though I know that this is far too obscene to be anything other than reality, I wake up every morning with a doubt. That small voice that tells me that this is impossible.

In my case, change decided to hit me when I thought that everything was at it's best. When I felt comfortable, happy and wanted time to just stop in that moment.

The universe really seems to have an odd sense of humour.

* * *

Rock climbing.

Perhaps it wasn't exactly a usual thing to be do, but that didn't ever matter to my family. In fact the 'romantic' tale of how my parents met actually began with rock climbing, so I suppose that my brother and I never really had a choice in the matter. There were pictures of the two of us on an indoor rock climbing course at the tender age of 4.

"Not scared now are you Kens?" I heard a voice call from behind me as I was double checking my harness. I rolled my eyes at the mocking comment.

"Checking my gear doesn't mean I'm scared, it just means I don't have a death wish," I answered, a grin on my face as I turned to see my brother. Twin brother actually. Though that wouldn't be obvious at first… if at all.

Both of us looked completely different, and we were also fairly different. The things we did have in common were an enjoyment of teasing one another, music and rock climbing. The prior was probably one of the reasons that arguments between the two of us were unfortunately common.

"How about we make this interesting?" James asked me, a smirk playing on his lips as he leaned on the rock face that we were about to climb. I paused for a moment, narrowing my eyes at the words he spoke. I almost immediately knew that he was going to suggest a bet, though why he was going to was beyond me. Despite being confident in my abilities, I didn't see the appeal in betting. And James? He knew exactly what was going through my mind, vocalising his thoughts almost immediately. "Come on Mackenzie…"

Raising an eyebrow at his whining, I shrugged. "What do you want to bet?" I asked without thinking. If I at least considered it, he couldn't hold it against me. And there was a small, but still distinct chance that this would even somehow work out in my advantage.

"Hmmm," he paused in thought for a moment, not having seemed to have thought this far. "Last to the top takes the winner's chores for a month?"

"A week."

"Deal," my brother commented with a grin, reaching out to ruffle my hair. "Though my dear little sister, you'll be regretting that you decided to agree on this soon enough."

"I'm older than you," I grumbled as he walked away, glaring at the back of the blonde spiked up hair as he wandered over to where our parents were still discussing something.

If I'm being completely honest, that's where my memory gets a bit blurry. I can remember our parents starting on the climb before we did, and after a while of listening to my ipod I remember us also beginning the climb.

It started off normally enough, I was actually slightly ahead by the time that we reached the halfway point. But only barely. That alone was enough to fuel my determination to go faster. My determination to win.

Unfortunately that insistence on speed came with a price.

I wasn't thinking clearly. I wasn't focussed on what I was doing, instead caught up with what my brother was doing. I wasn't checking the ropes as carefully as I had in all of our past climbs. I'd gotten away with it in the past, and figured that I could get away with it again.

That was where I was wrong.

Sometimes the first sign of trouble already comes too late. For me on that day I'm certain that it was. I can't remember what my brother had said, but in response I made a few quicker, less thought out moves. Maybe I hadn't actually heard what my brother had said. Maybe it was just his voice.

Either way I felt one of my feet slip, felt my body slam against the cliff face. A panicked shout caught my attention, though it was probably my own. Finally my fingers slipped, and at some point I was glad that I couldn't tell what was happening, my last memory being a scream.

* * *

I was certain that I was dead. It should have been impossible to be anything but dead. But by the amount of pain, the conflict of what I was feeling. Sweating. Freezing. Panic. Calm. Hunger.

And thirsty, I was so damn thirsty that I wished beyond anything else that I could get something to drink.

But I was in too much pain to move. Before I ever opened my eyes I was unconscious again.

"Do you think she'll make it?" was what I woke up to when I next regained consciousness.

"It's possible she will, however she has been asleep for almost a week, it's also possible that she may never wake up…" the second voice was definitely older. And it scared me. Never wake up? I was awake. They couldn't give up on me now. I had to survive. I couldn't let myself die. I couldn't let them give up on me.

With that thought I managed to get a groan past my lips as I tried to move my body a little bit. The reaction was almost immediate.

"She's awake," the younger voice announced, and I could feel that someone was immediately by my side.

"Help me sit her up Katara, and bring some of that water," the moment the older woman said those words I was terrified. I hadn't yet mastered the strength of opening my eyes let alone sitting. I could already imagine the pain that that would cause. Forcing my eyes to open, the entire area was blurry. I could see white, and two people dressed in blue. But I knew that this definitely wasn't a hospital.

Thankfully they didn't actually force me to sit up entirely, only moving me enough to make it easier for me to drink. But even after that my body collapsed, exhausted.

"Thank you…" I managed to murmur, before I allowed myself to sleep again.

There were a couple of times that I faded in and out of consciousness after that. In fact it was just over another week before I'd managed to get to a point where I was able to stay awake. Even more exciting was the fact that I was able to eat and drink by myself.

It's funny how quickly the little things we don't pay attention to are forgotten. After two weeks of feeling completely useless though, it was one of the best feelings in the world.

"What's your name?" the dark skinned girl, who seemed about a year or two younger than I was asked, that first day I was starting to regain some sense of independence. Her grandmother, or gran-gran as she called her, was dealing with something else going on. So it was just me, and the other girl.

I couldn't remember her name for the life of me, but she seemed familiar, and so was her voice. It was probably just due to the fact that she'd been taking care of me for the last few weeks.

"Mackenzie," I answered after a few moments, not really thinking about it. "But… everyone calls me Kenzi, or Kens."

"That's a strange name…" she commented, though she looked at me with a smile while I looked in confusion. I knew that wherever I was, it was far from home. And I was still trying to figure out exactly how I got here given it seemed like I was in an igloo of sorts, but I lived in an area where it never snowed.

"What's yours?" I asked her, a sleepy smile playing on my face.

"Katara," she answered, continuing to look at me, seeming to judge me. "How old are you? Are you from the Earth Kingdom? Can you remember what happened? Are you a bender?"

At that moment I understood everything.

And I wasn't sure that I really wanted to anymore.

It was shortly after that, that gran-gran had returned and allowed me to leave the igloo with Katara, just to look around.

"It's beautiful," I whispered the moment we stepped outside, looking at the town. Katara smiled at my comment, also looking around. I realised that none of the men were here, something that shouldn't have surprised me. Unfortunately that also meant that the world was still at war.

I felt as good as dead.

Living in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender might have been a childhood dream, I couldn't remember how often I had watched the episodes when I was about 10 years old. Now, 5 years later and in said world, I was much more aware of what this meant.

There was a war going on. Medicine really wasn't that good here. People had the ability to control the elements, and I was pretty certain that was one thing about me that hadn't changed.

"It's only a small village… and we're all that's here at the moment," she explained, her shoulders sagging as she looked in a different direction.

"The war?" I asked her, and she nodded her head. Thinking about how she was fourteen made my stomach sink. She should be talking about boys, or learning waterbending, enjoying her life. But growing up in an era of war meant she had to grow up so fast. And now, standing beside her I was able to see the effect it had. She was trying to be strong, she had to be strong. But she was still just a girl.

In that moment I made a promise to myself, a promise that I'd do my very best to save as much of this messed up world as I possibly could.

Now if only I could re-watch all the episodes to prepare myself…


	2. Time Doesn't Wait

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OC**

* * *

Three months. It had been exactly three months when I found myself dreaming of the Avatar, of Aang. I saw him inside the ice berg, saw the bright glow of the avatar state.

Only, in my dream it didn't look like the cartoon had. He looked more real. Like a person.

It shifted, to only the boy and I sitting on a bison in the middle of the ocean. He didn't look at all surprised when he noticed me, instead offering me a grin.

"Hey Aang," I greeted without thinking much about it, which was when his expression twisted to one of shock. I couldn't help but smile in amusement at the dream Aang.

"How do you know my name?" he asked after a moment, and I shrugged with a small smile.

"Secret," I announced after a moment, the smile not leaving my face. This was a bit disorientating. This dream was being completely controlled by me, something that never had happened to me before. It was at that moment that it slowly seemed to be broken up as I found myself waking up, another day in the south pole.

After waking up, I didn't think much of it to be honest, though now I was starting to think that I should have taken the dream more seriously. A lot more seriously.

The sound of the bellow echoing made me cringe slightly, my body frozen in place as I stared at the creature that made the sound.

Definitely should've taken it seriously.

Appa was standing in front of me. The large bison didn't seem to care at all about the fact that I felt completely uncomfortable. I wasn't even sure if the animal was aware of that fact actually. So if Appa was here, that would mean that Aang would have arrived with Sokka and Katara last night… perhaps that was the reason I had the dream. Something to warn me of what would happen today. I felt like I was about to throw up.

If Aang was here, that meant that soon the travels would begin…

I knew theoretically I would be able to stay here, stay in the village, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. Somehow I had wished that maybe, just maybe, it would continue on as normal. That none of the events would happen. Or at least that the events would wait until a time that I felt ready to take them on.

Neither of those things were going my way. And with Aang here, it wouldn't be too long until Zuko followed.

I was definitely dead, that was the conclusion that I came to. I couldn't fight. I supposed, theoretically there would be opportunities along the way to possibly learn. Despite his faults, it couldn't be denied that Sokka was actually a fairly good fighter. And the basics would be better than nothing at all in this world.

"Kenzi!" I heard Katara's voice, bringing me out of my thoughts as my eyes stayed stuck on the massive animal.

"What in the world is that?" I half-screeched in response, pointing at Appa. I was more than aware of the answer of course, but seeing Appa in real life was terrifying.

"It's a flying bison," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It doesn't fly though," Sokka deadpanned, coming up behind his sister.

If I didn't know better I probably would've agreed with Sokka. I didn't understand how the thing could possibly fly. It was probably the least aerodynamic, heavy thing that I've ever seen. Physically it should've been impossible for the bison to fly. But I supposed that perhaps our rules didn't exactly apply here.

I blinked for a moment, looking between the siblings and then looking back at the bison. I could feel my mouth open, before closing again as I wasn't even sure what to respond with or how to ask. Knowing that this would eventually happen really hadn't prepared me for it well enough. Or at all.

"How did it get here?" I finally asked, trying my hardest not to swear.

"You know how we went fishing yesterday?" Katara asked excitedly. I nodded mutely, focussing back at the bison that seemed to have moved slightly closer to me. "Well we found an Airbender named Aang, he and his flying bison were stuck in an ice berg!" after the short summary, she continued on and on and on about everything that had led up to that point.

I found myself barely listening to her as I looked at the bison. Might as well get friendly with it before I have to, I thought looking at it carefully as I edged forward slowly reaching up and carefully touching what would be a cheek I suppose.

"It's getting later Katara, shouldn't you check on your new guest?" a new voice announced, and I turned seeing gran-gran standing behind me. Very quickly her gaze shifted from her granddaughter, to her grandson and myself. "And Kenzi and Sokka, why don't you join the rest of the village in waiting to meet the airbender, and then you both have chores to do."

I smiled in agreement, walking around the bison and back into the village with Katara, Sokka trailing behind moping, head down and grumbling to himself. When we got to the village centre again, Sokka dropped himself onto the ground outside of the tent, while Katara went in to wake Aang up. I laughed at Sokka's reaction, before sitting myself down beside him.

Only a few moments later Katara dragged the bold kid out of the tent, giving him a general introduction to the village.

It didn't take long for Sokka to get to his feet, I rolled my eyes as he snatched the glider out of Aang's hands, demanding an explanation.

"Last time I checked, humans can't fly," Sokka spat out, and rolling my eyes I pushed myself to my feet moving towards them in order to try to stop Sokka from going further. I didn't get far before Aang retorted.

"Check again," he announced grinning, launching himself into the air. Like the kids giggling and watching in amazement, my eyes were glued to him.

The cartoon hadn't done it justice.

The ease at which this human was gliding through the air, the controlled movements, the way that by will he could go up and down. It was beautiful. Entrancing. I loved that. I wanted that. Unfortunately, I knew that it would never happen.

Thankfully the moment was also ruined as I came to that conclusion, by the young airbender smacking straight into Sokka's watchtower. I couldn't help but giggle at the sight.

"My watchtower!" he cried out, as Katara and I ran forward to check that the boy was alright. I froze for a moment, turning to glare at him for a moment.

'Be nice,' I mouthed, he averted his eyes, running to his watchtower in order to assess the damage. It made me think it damn well served him right when the snow landed on top of him. I did try to warn him.

"Great you're an airbender, Katara's a waterbender, together you can just waste time all day long," he muttered sarcastically. Immediately afterwards he stormed off. Seeing that Aang and Katara were anyway busy talking with one another, I followed after Katara's brother instead of involving myself in the conversation.

"You alright Sokka?" I asked softly as I approached him. He's dropped himself to the ground, leaning his back against the ice wall surrounding the small village.

"I'm fine, just perfect, why wouldn't I be?" he asked sarcastically, not even looking at me. Sighing quietly I ran a hand through my hair.

* * *

I'd finished off my chores, and found myself sitting down for a break when Aang found me. And by found me, I mean seemed to pop up in front of me out of no where. I yelped, my body jerking backwards when I noticed him.

"Hello," he grinned, sitting himself in front of me and laughing slightly at my reaction. "You're the girl from my dream," he added quickly as I was still catching my bearings. "You have really cool eyes by the way."

"Uh…" my response was less than stellar. While I would've liked to think that I could always be witty and intelligent, in that moment both of those things failed me. I was in his dream? I thought that that was only my dream. "You mean that happened?"

"You didn't know?" he asked innocently, looking at me in confusion.

"I thought that I was just having a weird dream…" I trailed off, biting my lip as I thought about things.

"Monk Gyatso told me that if two people dream about one another they can share a dream."

"But we didn't know each other," I retorted, cocking my head to the side as I spoke. He also looked deep in thought for all of a moment. It really didn't last long until he looked up at me with a large smile and shrugged.

"Maybe we didn't need to, maybe you naturally walk through dreams. I met another dream walker when I was in the Fire Nation and spent time with Kuzon. From what I knew he had a tendency to walk in peoples dreams to help them understand themselves-" he rambled on about that for a while, while I struggled to process what he was on about.

"Yeah I don't think that's the case," I finally interrupted. "But… It's good to have some kind of idea of what it might be," I added after seeing his face drop.

"So…" he dragged out his first word, the grin back on his face. "I heard that you're from the Earth Kingdom, what brought you out here?"

"It's a long story, but let's not worry about that right now. Aren't you and Katara going penguin sledding?" I asked, tilting my head to the side with a grin to try to distract him from my lie. I was thankful that the distraction worked as he went running off to the water tribe girl.

* * *

Ultimately Sokka alerted everyone to the flare that went off. Although, I had a feeling that all of us had seen it before he took any decisive action on what to do. All of the village had gathered, waiting for Aang and Katara to return. Waiting for any other signs of trouble.

Even in the orange tone of the sunset the flare was painfully obvious.

And knowing what was to come I couldn't help but feel sick.

They walked down together, slowly. The children greeted them, mainly Aang, with cheers once they finally got closer. I knew Sokka wasn't thinking, or acting, rationally. With that in mind I grabbed onto his arm, giving him a look before lowering my voice to whisper, "Don't be too harsh on him."

"What would you know? You aren't even from this village, not even from the water tribe!" he muttered, shrugging my arm off as he started approaching his sister, and the avatar. Not that he was aware of the latter's status quite yet. I knew that by tomorrow he would though. Taking a few small breaths to calm myself I kept my eyes down, slowly moving away from the others and into the small tent that had served as my home since arriving.

This was the way that it was meant to happen, I reminded myself. Don't worry yet… Don't worry yet… the thought repeated in my mind as I felt myself fall into unconsciousness.

My dream started as nothing, but soon enough I found myself sitting across from the young avatar, looking exhausted and upset.

"Aang?" I called out, seeing him jump in his dream and smiling sadly at me.

"Kensi…" he answered sullenly. Raising my eyebrow at him I shook my head, pulling the boy into a soft hug.

"I don't know how to control this, or how long this lasts so just know that this was meant to happen. You may not believe me… but… things happen for a reason… and I want you to keep Katara and Sokka close, they'll help you throughout everything," I whispered, not relaxing my hold.

"But I was just banished…" he murmured in response. A small chuckle escaped my lips.

"Things have a way of working out, young avatar," I shouldn't know. But I revealed that I did. I heard him gasp in shock at the last word, pushing me backwards slightly. I just hoped that that was all the motivation he needed to keep on going with this. I had to hope that he did.

* * *

**A/N: So there's another chapter up, and finally has gotten us into the events of the series. This means that hopefully soon I'll start exploring other things. If you like it, or have constructive criticism feel free to review! **

**Also thank you to those that have already read this story, and the people who followed. **

**Kuronique Misaki: I'm really glad you enjoyed the first chapter, I hope that you also enjoyed this!**


	3. The Avatar

**Disclaimer: In case you were wondering, things haven't changed, I still don't own any rights to ATLA. I wish I did. But as I don't, this is something I do for fun.**

* * *

"Kenzi! Kenzi wake up!" I heard a distressed voice cry, and lurched up to see Katara.

"What's wrong?" I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes.

"The Fire Nation are coming," she answered spitefully, though I could still see the fear on her face. I also immediately launched myself up, throwing on the water tribe clothes that I had been lucky to have received. Everything was tense.

It was odd, how everyone knew they were coming. And yet none of us knew when they were going to arrive. It only added to the already existent fear. Everyone was tense. Concerned about themselves. Concerned about their families. Concerned that we had no one to defend us.

Even knowing that we were safe, that we would have someone to fight for us I was nervous. Maybe I had changed things in talking to him about the dream… maybe he had already moved on. Maybe I'd screw up something in our attempt to rescue him.

All the thoughts flooded my head as I tried to help with settling the other villagers along with gran-gran, Sokka and Katara. I was noticeably less successful than any of the others. They didn't seem to take well to outsiders.

Or at all.

That's when the rumbling started. The entire ground was moving, so similar to an earthquake. Gasps and cries of distress echoed through the otherwise quiet village, and I tried my hardest to shuffle people into their houses. It may have been a false sense of security, but it was exactly that I was aiming for. If they weren't as scared, they could act more rationally. And from my memory none of the igloos had been destroyed when Zuko had come to the South Pole.

I was just hoping that in this case, the cartoon was right.

Thankfully that part was true, everyone was safe and no one injured by the ship. Unfortunately however, everyone had come out again in order to watch what was happening, despite their fear. Not knowing what else to do I joined them, waiting for the banished prince to exit the ship. I was scared. And knew for the next few months I'd probably be constantly terrified of him.

But I also knew that I had to help him.

That would help with so much that we were going to have to go through.

Unfortunately I had a feeling a hug wouldn't be enough.

And I also knew that I really had to learn how to fight, now that the 'series' had started. I was definitely going to have to have a talk with Sokka soon.

As he walked down, I had to admit that Zuko was intimidating. He was tall, in armour, and the scar definitely helped. Add two, even larger men, that were flanking his sides and it was definitely not good. Especially with Sokka as the only warrior. I could feel myself trembling, the small breaths escaping me not under control at all.

And then he knocked Sokka out of the way effortlessly.

"Where are you hiding him?" he demanded, scanning us. I tried to keep my eyes down. Tried to detract attention from myself. I felt as though I probably just looked even more guilty though. After a few moments pause he reached for gran-gran quite harshly and my eyes were drawn to the scene. Widening as I looked at the woman that had nursed me to health again.

Katara thankfully caught and steadied her as he threw her out of the way. Though with the following, painful, silence, he attacked with firebending. Hearing the cries I couldn't stay quiet, even if I was going to lie. I had to buy him some time. I had to stop Zuko from actually causing damage.

"The avatar isn't here," I called out. "He's been gone for a hundred years, we don't know anything!" I finished off, daring to meet his eyes. If it were any other situation I would've said they were beautiful. Both a literal golden colour. Unfortunately that thought was torn from me as he stalked over to where I was standing.

"You aren't from the Water Tribe," he spat out looking at me.

"She is a member of our village!" Katara spoke up, and I looked at her with a smile despite the situation.

"That doesn't matter! Tell me where the avatar is!" he bellowed, followed by the sound of a war cry. Glancing at Sokka over Zuko's shoulder I cringed. The point of a sneak attack is to sneak, and not to be obvious. That boy definitely still had a lot to learn. I cringed again as he was thrown over Zuko's shoulder. With ease. In fact Zuko looked like it took about as much effort as swatting a mosquito, too concerned with sucking blood than the threat to it's own life.

Thankfully he avoided the fire, and threw the boomerang. It was followed by a failed spear attack. I cringed as he landed on his ass. My brain was screaming for me to do something, anything really. My body however was completely frozen.

I sighed in relief as the boomerang hit the prince in the back of the head, knocking him forward and extinguishing the flame that had appeared in his hand. A growl left his throat, the fire reappearing in the shape of daggers in his hands. That was when my body let my brain take over, helping Sokka up and placing myself half in front of him.

The intense moment was thankfully broken by the penguin sledding airbender that knocked the fire firebender right off of his feet. The sight was actually fairly comical. All the children were cheering for Aang, who after being knocked off by the penguin calmly sat on the ground looking at us.

"Hey Katara, hey Sokka, hey Kenzi," he greeted with a lopsided smile. Grinning back I waved, noticing Katara's hopeful smile and the deflated look on Sokka's face. I nudged him, smiling in approval as he was nice to Aang in his greeting.

It was a start.

A rather good start.

Though it seemed to border on sarcasm.

"You're the airbender? You're the avatar?" Zuko demanded in a low voice as they stood, prepared to fight. Hearing the expressions from those around me a smile crept back on my face.

"Are you really that surprised?" I asked.

No one responded.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training. Meditating. You're just a child!" the annoyance in his voice was obvious. Aang just looked confused, and I couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped me. Thankfully no one's attention ended up on me, everyone too absorbed in the following attacks Zuko launched.

Cries, screams, whimpers of fear echoed throughout the villagers. I'd grabbed a child from the front pulling him back behind me to protect him as best as I was able to. I knew that this was the moment. I knew from the look on Aang's face. It both encouraged and worried me. The look of responsibility and concern. He was too young to face something of this nature, and yet he was the main player in the end of this war. The concern though. That truly showed the man that he would be, his willingness to do anything to protect. In some ways he really was wise beyond his years, despite being that goofy kid.

If I could've I would've hugged him.

"If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?" the silence was tense. Probably even worse than the music that would be playing if this was a movie. It made me grip onto the child I'd moved from danger earlier, I was expecting something to go wrong now.

Zuko's golden eyes stayed trained on the avatar in his fighting stance, before looking around the villagers. Finally, he straightened himself up, a nod giving the answer to the situation we found ourselves in. I watched the fire nation soldiers take him away, watched Katara silently as she tried to plead with Aang, letting go of the child. As he turned I gave a nod, and he gave a weak smile in return.

I hoped that he remembered my words. Hoped that they had also given him a little extra to fight for.

"Don't worry, it'll be ok" I heard him call back to us and I gave a sad smile. Not that it would be all too long until we met up with him again.

As the ship sailed away all of us were somber, slowly getting to work fixing up the village. I didn't realise how long I'd been working until I noticed both Sokka and Katara were missing. Eyes widening in surprise I ran.

"Find Appa before they do, find Appa and take him to them," I muttered to myself, trying to keep an even footing as I scurried along the frozen plains.

Thankfully the giant flying bison didn't camouflage in this environment.

Though I doubted it could camouflage anywhere.

"Come on Appa, let's get to Katara and Sokka and then we'll go save Aang," I whispered to him as I saw him. He let out a loud sound in return, causing me to cringe. I wasn't sure what he meant. Still I took that as a positive, hoping that maybe he understood more of this language then anyone gave him credit for. Except maybe Aang now that I remembered a few 'conversations' the two had.

Holding my breath I climbed up onto his head, and thankfully when I was perched comfortably he started moving. Even if I did almost fall off the moment he started walking.

Seeing Katara and Sokka with all their stuff packed into the canoe I grinned, Appa walking up to him as I stayed perched on his head with a silly grin.

"I'm sorry Sokka, but I doubt you're good enough to catch up with a warship." My announcement was highlighted by another noise of Appa's creation. It kind of reminded me of an odd mixture of a purr, growl and yawn. Probably over-analysis.

Sokka just glared.

However, Katara was all too happy to climb onto the saddle and shortly after was followed by her brother. Having never officially seen Aang fly Appa I shut my mouth and let them figure out that they were meant to say 'yip yip'. We had more than enough time.

Though there was a nagging voice in my head that was saying that going early would be a good idea. But I wasn't going to change things just yet.

* * *

When we got to the Fire Nation ship, Aang and Zuko where fighting on deck already. While I'd kept them open for the last fight, I knew I couldn't watch this. Katara's cry alerted me to the fact that Aang had been thrown over the side of the ship, which was when I dared to open my eyes again.

'You could've avoided this,' the voice in the back of my head said. Still I was sure that I'd done the right thing. In the avatar state he'd do a significant amount of damage, and giving Iroh the time to get on board he'd ensure that they couldn't immediately follow us. 'But that mean's Zhao will also be on your backs… if you were earlier maybe you wouldn't have had to worry about him for a while.'

It was a painful amount of time until Aang reappeared. The water circled around him, eyes and tattoos glowing. I could imagine the look on the faces of those on the ship. I almost felt sorry for them. Almost. This had to happen, I reminded myself, it had to. But… it was scary. It was terrifying. Perhaps while just watching the cartoon I hadn't understood but… that goofy kid turning into this. I could understand why Katara had said it was distressing to see him in the avatar state.

He passed out while we landed, and I immediately slid off of Appa, heading towards the young airbender along with the siblings. Still I let my eyes scan around. I had to be ready. Ready to alert them that we had to fight again.

Or that they had to while I tried to cause some kind of distraction.

"Hey Katara, hey Sokka, hey Kenzi. Thanks for coming," he murmured weakly. Seeing the impact of the avatar state on the boy's body also made me feel bad about doing nothing.

"Well I couldn't let you have all the glory," he answered cockily, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I dropped my staff," Aang murmured, and I watched Sokka run towards it.

"Katara, help me get him to Appa," I said gently, as the two of us moved to help the boy up. As we steadied him on his feet, we both had to give him a bit more extra support as we began walking.

"Ha! That's from the Water Tribe!" I heard Sokka yell victoriously, causing me to glance over, seeing him holding the staff victoriously above his head. Raising an eyebrow, I shrugged at Katara as we helped Aang up onto Appa. Unfortunately the guards were also starting to regain consciousness now. Getting up and approaching. Quickly, I got up onto Appa, watching as she accidentally froze Sokka and started the attack on the soldiers.

"We need to get out of here quickly," I called out to Aang, holding a hand out to help Katara up and then running to pull Sokka up onto the saddle as well. In my attempt to help Sokka I stumbled, still successfully keeping both of us in the saddle as we started flying. But it was all a lot less gracefully than hoped. In fact it ended in both of us practically face planting while Katara laughed at the situation. Almost a second later I found myself clinging to the edge of the saddle looking at the fire ball coming our way. "Aang!"

Almost immediately the airbender was there, deflecting it and accidentally causing an avalanche in the process.

Despite the laughter that came from Aang, Katara and Sokka I looked on to the destruction caused sadly. They were also people. I had caused this.

'There's so much that you could prevent… so much you could change' the voice reminded me again as I lay down looking at the sky quite listlessly.

I didn't sleep that night.

* * *

**A/N: So we're finally getting into the actual series, now... this will mean more exploration of Kenzi as a character, as well as looks into the characters and the ways of life and the different cultures of the ATLA universe. I was hoping that this would show the increasing doubts that Kenzi is having about not getting involved, which will ultimately lead to her starting to try to 'fix' things. **

**Rosezelene Ersa: Thank you for your lovely review! I'm glad that you like the story, and here's that quick update you were asking for... Also, I'm looking forward to changing a few things to be honest...**


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